Page 8 of Risk It All
When Wes and Gabe nodded, I offered to get the next round. “Should probably say hi to Eliza, too,” I added. It’d just be a casual hello. Better now than later, especially since we were going to be working together.
So, I got up and walked over to the bar—exactly what I should’ve done four years ago.
3
ELIZA
“When does your shift end?”a voice behind me asked.
A smile tugged at my lips. Hook, line, and sinker.
I turned to face Andy, the man at the bar who I’d been flirting with for the last hour. He looked to be around my age—maybe a few years older—and was wearing a pair of slacks and a button-up. His light-brown hair was neatly styled, and one dimple popped when he smiled.
I slid his card and receipt across the wooden bar top. “I have another thirty minutes and then need to do my closing work. I’m free for whatever you had in mind after that.”
He grabbed his card and slid it in his wallet with a content hum. “I’m a lucky man.”
“That you are.”
His gaze flicked to me, but when our eyes met, I didn’t feel what I’d hoped. No spark or desire or anticipation in my lower belly, despite how much I’d enjoyed talking to him tonight. Our conversation had been easy and flirty, leaving me convinced the sparkcouldbe there.
Plus, Andy appeared to be a good guy from what I knew, and he checked my three boxes: not a local, in town temporarily, anddidn’t give off red flags. That last box was tough to check off sometimes. Men sure loved to say whatever the fuck came to their minds when all of us would be better off if they just…didn’t.
“I’ll hang out at the bar until you’re ready to leave,” Andy said with a grin.
The corner of my mouth tipped up into a flirty smile before I turned back to check if the other patrons—all locals—needed refills.
There were two places I felt most in my element: my yoga studio and behind the bar. The vibes couldn’t be more different, but that was what I loved most. I had a place where I could decompress and a place where I could socialize and catch up on what everyone in town was up to.
I got my first taste of bartending in college and was immediately drawn to it. I loved the challenge, especially on a busy night, to make people’s drinks and keep everything in check. On slower nights, I enjoyed hearing what people were up to and offering advice if they wanted it—although I’d be the first to admit my advice wasn’t great. It usually consisted of some version of avoiding the problem.
I returned to bartending last summer when Wes needed an extra set of hands. It worked out perfectly: I returned to doing something I enjoyedandgot paid to give Wes shit. With how close Lily and I were, Wes was like a second older brother.
And I got to flirt, although that only happened when people from out of town visited, typically in the summer and winter months. Early April, and spring overall, were quiet. Which was why I was surprised when a new face had walked in earlier tonight. Andy was passing through Golden Falls and only in town for the night before heading back home.
As much as I enjoyed flirting, I also just loved talking to people. I loved learning about them, hearing what they wereexcited about, what they were looking forward to. Bartending in Golden Falls only made me love it more, because I got to talk with people who I’d known my whole life and who I maybe otherwise wouldn’t get to talk to regularly.
I understood why people typically didn’t want to be in one place their whole lives, but that was because they hadn’t experienced Golden Falls. I’d left for college but came right back. This was my home—no doubt about it. This was where my family was. Not just my brother and grandma, but Lily, Wes, their parents, Jules…the list could go on.
It was where I heard stories of my parents falling in love. I got to learn about the people they were from those who loved them most.
I didn’t remember much of my parents—I was only six when they died in a car accident—but I was surrounded by people who had countless memories of them. People who had helped my grandma when she lost her son and daughter-in-law and was suddenly raising two kids on her own.
You couldn’t find that just anywhere.
I’d been lost in conversation with Tom, who was in his fifties but had lived in Golden Falls since he was a teenager, telling me about how his youngest daughter was in her second semester of freshman year.
He tilted his head to the side and stopped mid-story. He tipped his chin toward the other side of the bar. “Who’s the new guy?”
“Oh, that’s just—” I thought Tom was talking about Andy, but when I followed his gaze, I saw something—or someone—completely different.
Sauntering up to the bar with four empty beer glasses in his large hands was Leo Rivers. And he was looking right at me, like he was on a mission. For a split second, my vision zeroed in on him, and it was like the music blaring through the speakers hadquieted. My stomach did a somersault. Why did it feel like it was only us in the bar?
He was wearing a beige short-sleeved linen shirt with the first few buttons undone, showing his muscled, tattooed arms and a sliver of his tan chest. His dark jeans hung perfectly on his hips, and his brown hair was messy, like he’d been running his fingers through it all night. His beard was neatly trimmed, with his mustache just slightly longer.
Leo had an effortless, quiet confidence that I’d been curious about since the moment we met. It was the exact opposite of Colin, who was cocky, loud, and loved to have everyone’s eyes on him.
With Leo’s quiet confidence came a piercing blue gaze that I couldn’t look away from. He looked similar to the last time I saw him three years ago…only a little more tattooed and a little more like trouble.
